[50.13] Vibrationally Excited H2 in the Upper Thermosphere of Jupiter:Fluorescence in the Lyman and Werner Bands

Fluorescence of H2 Lyman and Werner bands has been proven
to be an important process in explaining the observations of
Jupiter's dayglow (both in terms of brightness and spectral
shape), and has also been interpreted as an important source
of vibrationally excited H2(v) molecules in their ground
electronic state. The distribution of sufficiently abundant
H2(v>3) molecules at the thermospheric heights may have
a substantial impact on the ionospheric electron densities.
Fluorescence in the Lyman and Werner bands can be induced by
either solar EUV photon or photoelectron. Regardless of the
relative importance of these sources, the H2 band
emission at non-auroral latitudes requires a detailed
radiative transfer calculation. We have recently modified
our thermospheric-ionospheric codes to perform more
realistic calculations of density distribution of each of
the 14 vibrationally excited levels of H2 molecules
self-consistently with the jovian ionospheric electron and
ion densities. We incorporated high-resolution solar EUV
fluxes (between 850A and 1150A), measured with the SUMER
instrument on-board SOHO, and updated molecular data on
H2. However, photoelectron fluxes from a recently
modified two-stream code were used. The calculated H2
emission spectra were compared with recently observed
high-resolution jovian dayglow spectra. The calculated
electron density profiles were compared with those inferred
from the analysis of the Galileo RSS data. Details of the
results will be presented.